Spanish oil syndrome
| Classification according to ICD-10 | |
|---|---|
| T62 | Toxic effect of other harmful substances ingested with food |
| T65 | Toxic effects of other and unspecified substances |
| T65.3 | Nitro and amino derivatives of benzene and its homologues - aniline (aminobenzene) |
| ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019) | |
The Spanish Oil Syndrome ( English Toxic Oil Syndrome (TOS) , Spanish síndrome del aceite tóxico ) arose in 1981 as a result of mass poisoning from contaminated cooking oil . Around 20,000 people fell ill, of which it is estimated that around 700 died in the following years.
prehistory
Rapeseed oil denatured with aniline was marketed as edible oil and sold by street vendors in Spain .
Symptoms
Among other things, the following symptoms occurred:
- Myalgia (general muscle pain)
- peripheral eosinophilia
- Pulmonary infiltrates (accumulations of fluids and cellular components in the lungs)
- Scleroderma (hardening of the connective tissue of the skin alone or of the skin and internal organs)
toxicology
The exact mechanism of the poisoning and thus the toxic agent is still unclear. After the aniline itself hypothesis has not confirmed, will now be inter alia a connection with fatty acid - esters of 3- ( N -phenylamino) -1,2-propanediol (PAP) and autoimmune mechanisms discussed.
process
In the late 1980s there was a trial before the Audiencia Nacional de España , the National Court of Justice of Spain . On May 20, 1989, 13 of 38 indicted companies were convicted, with prison terms ranging from six months to 20 years. The punishments were far too mild for those affected, and they were initially not entitled to financial support. It was not until 1997 that the Supreme Court awarded the victims state severance pay because officials from the health and border authorities, in the opinion of the court, were jointly responsible.
“We were treated as second-rate people in court. We were poisoned for shopping where we shouldn't have. Even a high official pushed the responsibility onto the victims: we would have bought cheap oil. "
Aftermath
The poison oil scandal prompted legal regulation of consumer protection in Spain. In addition, food controls were then tightened. In Madrid one was in 2019 stele erected in memory of the victims, reminiscent of the largest food scandal in the history of Spain.
See also
Web links
literature
- J. Falbe, M. Regitz (Ed.): Römpp Lexikon Chemie. 10th edition. Thieme, Stuttgart / New York 1996-1999, p. 2999.
- Emilio Gelpí, Manuel Posada de la Paz, Benedetto Terracini, Ignacio Abaitua, Agustín Gómez de la Cámara, Edwin M. Kilbourne, Carlos Lahoz, Bénoit Nemery, Rossanne M. Philen, Luis Soldevilla, Stanislaw Tarkowski (WHO / CISAT Scientific Committee for the Toxic Oil Syndrome): The Spanish toxic oil syndrome 20 years after its onset: a multidisciplinary review of scientific knowledge . In: Environmental Health Perspectives . tape 110 , no. 5 , May 2002, pp. 457-464 , PMID 12003748 , PMC 1240833 (free full text).
- Ten years of progress. (PDF; 1.54 MB) extensive WHO documenton TOS (English)
- Benedetto Terracini: The limits of epidemiology and the Spanish Toxic Oil Syndrome. In: International Journal of Epidemiology , 2004, 33, pp. 443-444.
- Peter Gillatt: The Spanish Toxic Oil Syndrome. In: Chemistry and Industry , September 4, 1989, pp. 556 f.
